Promised relief for those with mental illness in London did not arrive in time for the holidays, and the results were predictably grim: An overcrowded psychiatric ward and waits in the ER that reached as high as 148 hours.

The promise was straightforward: Ontario’s ruling Liberals announced Oct. 26 they would boost funding to London Health Sciences Centre so it could add 24 beds to its psychiatric ward at Victoria Hospital.

But more than two months later, none of those beds have been added and additions may not come until the spring, The Free Press has learned.

“Our volume and wait-time realities are clearly not what any of us would like to see here at LHSC,” hospital VP Julie Trpkovski said. “As you can imagine, adding beds is not as straightforward as it may sound. Like other hospitals, LHSC is in the midst of working through all of the associated logistics of adding 24 permanent (mental health) beds including space allocation, staffing and ancillary supports, risk assessments for various scenarios.”

The hospital intends to open the new beds by the spring, she said.

The lack of new beds left the hospital short-handed for a predictable spike in demand for mental health care around the holidays:

The 74-bed psychiatric ward was overcrowded every day between Dec. 22 and Jan. 1, with occupancy rates twice exceeding capacity by 25 per cent, according to hospital data.

Those facing a mental health crisis waited as long as six-plus days for a bed to open up in the ward.

While overcrowding was worst in the psychiatric ward, it was also a problem in other wards. Victoria Hospital had more patients than capacity for seven of the 11 days during the holiday break, while University Hospital was overcrowded for four days, hospital data shows.

“It’s shocking that this continues unabated with no end in sight,” London West MPP Peggy Sattler said Thursday. “The government has been completely negligent in its failure to address this crisis.”

Asked about the delay in opening mental health beds, a Health Ministry spokesperson wrote that the ministry is working on that matter with both the hospital and those who manage how the region allocates health-care dollars, the South West Local Health Integration Network.

“Every Ontarian deserves access to mental health services to support them in living fulfilled and healthy lives,” the spokesperson wrote.

The problem is not confined to London — the Ontario Hospital Association went public in the summer with its concerns about the lack of funding for hospital beds.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.